Birthday party low light shooting ?

[RiRo]

Hey
I was asked to shoot a birthday party this weekend, in 4 days.
The party will be in a closed area, meaning there would be no light but the dj's flash and the lasers...
'So the situation here is, very low light and moving subjects. I have a canon 500D and the default lens, 18-55m f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens.
I had the opportunity to take pics in such conditions in an earlier party with my friend's 1000D, same lens. I remember shooting in focal length 55 to be able to get an aperture of 3.5, but i ended up eventually using the built in flash. The images were not great.
How can i get nice pics without using flash ?
I thought of making some ppl and the birthday girl wear some glow sticks in order to get more light, what do you think ?
should i be using ISO 3200 all the time ?
will using a tripod and slow shutter make nice non blurry pics ? my guess is they will be blurry because ppl will be dancing ...
There is also the group pics in the middle of the party when ppl will look at me and say take a pic, i won't have the time and i can't change settings or slower the shutter speed, i should definitely use a flash right ?
I don't know anything about the "picture style" option and the "exposure comp./AEB settings", do i need to for the party ?
What white balance should i be using ? this is very important right ?
what abt the evaluative metering ?
any tips are verrry welcome thx for reading.

[RichardTaylor]

Shoot RAW (so you have more leeway when PPing iuncluding white balance)
If you don't want to use a flash..
Shoot aperture priority and wide open (take what ever shutter speed you can get.
Yes, shoot ISO 3200 but be prepared to use noise reduction when PPing.

I would be using evaluative metering, bit check your histogram to see how the exposure looks.

Any extra light will help.

If possible try to get an F2 or faster lens, it will help.

A tripod would help you get those motion style (arty?) pics but otherwise be pretty useless...

[Dajuan]

How did this shoot turn out for you?

[RiRo]

Well i think it turned out ok, i put my tripod on a table, took a lot of pics from up there, zoomed when needed ...
i learned that i should've took pics from the DJ's side because it would've showed the laser lines in the pics and the flash would have helped me instead of disturbing my images hehe.
give me your email i'll send you a link to see the pics, or just contact me at riro_1993[AT]hotmail.com